1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic reprographic printing system that is capable of extracting an image from a print job for printing on tab stock.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current printing systems are capable of shifting an image before printing on the output stock of a print job. These printing systems commonly shift the scanned images of documents in a print job a standard distance, for creating, for example, sufficient margins for binding the final product. Copying machines are also capable of forming set margins when printing on both sides of a duplex page. The process involves shifting the image in one direction on a first side and shifting the image in the opposite direction on the second side. Image shifting devices are also capable of shifting the scanned image of a document on copying paper, depending on the direction of conveyance of the copying paper. These systems commonly shift the image a preset standard distance for the entire print job. In all of the current printing systems that are capable of shifting an image, a master must be created that contains the image positioned for shifting.
The related art discloses printing systems that allow for shifting of an image during copying.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,864 to Stackenborg et al. discloses a reproduction device which includes a method for programming the width of an image-free edge zone on a copy sheet. By pressing a particular button on the control panel, the width of an image free edge zone can be adjusted at the left and right hand sides of a copy sheet to correlate the size of an original with the size of a selected output stock.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,441 to Maruta et al. discloses a copying machine that forms filing margins on both sides of a copy sheet by shifting a reduced version of the image from an original. The optical system scanning the original is shifted a predetermined distance away from its normal position for placing an image onto a copy sheet within the predetermined margins.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,029 to Ito discloses a copying machine with an image shift function that provides a defined filing margin on a copy sheet by shifting the transfer position of a document image to one edge of a copy paper. U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,622 to Kelley et al. discloses an electronic reprographic printing system that applies a special image shift to particular documents of a print job based on the difference between the size of the input stock that is scanned and the size of the output stock onto which the image is transferred. One use of such image shifting is the generation of tab pages from image masters that are not created on the same width as the tab stock on which the printing will ultimately be done.
In general, image shifting across an entire print job or even specialized image shifting, which variably shifts an image based on the difference between the size of the input and output stock, lacks flexibility and efficiency when used to make tabs. One problem is that to print the image in the desired location, the user must properly position the tab's image prior to scanning the image. For example, a tab master must be created, prior to shifting, on a separate sheet that includes only the tab image, positioned and oriented, to be shifted and printed on output tab stock. Another problem is that the images are scanned as pages so that when a tab image is shifted, the entire page image is shifted. Another problem with specialized image shifting is that the amount of the image shift depends upon detecting size differences in the input and output sheet.
Yet another problem occurs in the printing of a sequence of tabs. Reordering a sequence of tabs involves changing the tab master as well as all the other tab masters. Still further, when a document has been created without tabs and tabs are to be added as an afterthought, the user must go back through the whole process of creating tab masters and recreate the tab job.
While the related art recognizes image shifting for creation of tabs within a print job, a flexible and improved system is needed that allows for the selective extraction of images from anywhere within a print job, document or a memory of stored images and then variably rotates, scales, and applies the images in accordance with a desired output position and orientation of a particular tab stock (sheet or media). A system is needed that further stores the selected tab images sequentially in memory, therefore enabling the user to insert and delete tab images easily. Finally, the pages requiring tab stock in a print job are automatically printed in their proper order within the print job with their tab image on the tab (or tab extension).